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Abstract
It has been argued that the quality of daily interactions within organisations effects the wellbeing of both individuals and the broader organisation. Coaching for leadership development is one intervention often used to create organisation-wide changes in culture and wellbeing. Leadership style has been associated with employee stress and wellbeing. Coaching has also been shown to improve individual level measures of wellbeing. However, almost all the research into the effectiveness of coaching interventions assumes a linear model of change, and expects that any flow-on effects are also linear. In other words, much of the research assumed that any change in the leader has relatively uniform effects on the wellbeing of others, and that these effects can be adequately accessed via standard linear statistical analyses. We argue that linear approaches do not take the complexity of organisations seriously, and that Complex Adaptive Systems theory (CAS) provides a useful non-linear approach to thinking about organisational change and the wellbeing of individuals embedded in these systems. The relatively new methodology of Social Network Analysis (SNA) provides researchers with analytic tools designed to access the relational components of complex systems. This paper reports on changes observed in the relational networks of an organisation following a leadership coaching intervention. An AB design coaching intervention study was conducted across an organisation (N = 225). Wellbeing measures were taken for all employees and a social network analysis was conducted on the degree and quality of all organisational interactions. Twenty leaders (n = 20) received 8 coaching sessions. Individual self report measures of goal attainment as well as 360 feedbacks on transformational leadership were assessed in the control, pre and post intervention periods. A significant increase in the goal attainment, transformational leadership and psychological wellbeing measures were observed for those who received coaching. Average change in the perceived quality of interaction improved for those who received coaching. However there was a decline in the perceived quality of the interaction others believed they were having with those who were coached. It was also found that the closer any member of the network was identified as being connected to those who received coaching, the more likely they were to experience positive increases in wellbeing. This research highlights the influence of leadership coaching beyond the individual leader, and has important implications for organisational wellbeing initiatives and how we measure the impact of interventions aimed at organisational change. Our findings suggest a more nuanced approach is needed in designing interventions in complex adaptive systems.
Highlights
It has been argued that the quality of daily interactions within organisations effects the wellbeing of both individuals and the broader organisation
This research highlights the influence of leadership coaching beyond the individual leader, and has important implications for organisational wellbeing initiatives and how we measure the impact of interventions aimed at organisational change
Our findings suggest a more nuanced approach is needed in designing interventions in complex adaptive systems
Summary
It has been argued that the quality of daily interactions within organisations effects the wellbeing of both individuals and the broader organisation. Research on coaching at the individual level has been related to: increased goal striving, hope and wellbeing (Green et al 2006); increases in goal commitment, attainment and environmental mastery (Spence and Grant 2007); increases in cognitive hardiness, mental health and hope (Green et al 2007); the reduction of workplace stress and anxiety (Gyllensten and Palmer 2005); improvements in transformational leadership (Grant et al 2010a; Cerni et al 2010); and the enhancement of outcome expectancies and self-efficacy (Evers et al 2006). While the published research tends to focus heavily on individual level outcomes, the importance of coaching for groups and teams has been asserted previously (Arakawa and Greenberg 2007) Despite these assertions, the impact of coaching at the level of the group, team, organisation or system has largely been ignored. Focusing on the broader organisational impacts of coaching may provide a deeper understanding of coaching, at both the individual and organisational levels, and give greater clarity on the role of coaching in the process of effective organisational change
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